EU SUMMIT/COPENHAGEN: Fine Gael has come out against the proposal to give Turkey a date for the opening of negotiations to join the European Union.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, today will support the plan to set a date for talks, conditional on Turkey meeting human rights and economic criteria.
This is almost certainly to be agreed, although there is still debate over whether it should be as early as 2003, which Turkey wants, or as late as 2005, favoured by France and Germany.
While Labour and the Green Party support the Government position, Mr Enda Kenny, in common with leaders of sister parties in the EU, wants a date to be set only for completing an assessment of Turkey's fitness to join.
The criteria for applicant members were set out at another Copenhagen Summit in 1993. They entail observing full respect for human rights, ending torture and withdrawing the military from political life.
Mr Kenny told The Irish Times yesterday that Turkey was not yet ready for EU membership. "Turkey is a divided country in many ways. There are instances of people being terrorised and murdered that would not fit with the Copenhagen criteria. In Turkey, the mentality ranges from a Middle Ages/11th-century outlook to an outlook in the leadership that is very modern." But he said that coming from the only EU state whose people had voted for enlargement in a referendum, he would not be objecting in principle to further enlargement.
A Labour Party spokesman said yesterday his party had no problem with Turkey joining the EU provided it fulfilled the Copenhagen criteria and the economic criteria applied to all applicant states.
"We don't believe any decision on this should be made on the basis of the religious or ethnic background of the Turkish people," he said. Turkey still had "a lot of work to do" in relation to human rights issues, he went on. "But membership of the EU has brought political stability to former dictatorships and has helped to copperfasten democracy in those countries."
Green Party deputy Mr John Gormley said there should be no obstacle to Turkey joining if it fulfils the Copenhagen criteria. "Unfortunately there are racist undertones to a lot of the objections," he said. "It is very important that we have a cultural mix within the EU."